New hearing sought in '95 triple murder

Inmate's lawyer says prosecutors withheld evidence

An attorney for Levern Ward tried Thursday to win a new hearing for the Wheaton man sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1995 killing of Debra Evans and two of her children.

Anita Rivkin-Carothers filed a supplemental petition in a DuPage County courtroom detailing what she says is new evidence connected to the crime, in which a nearly full-term fetus was cut from Evans' womb.

Prosecutors called the evidence tenuous at best.

The attorney contends that Vikki Iacullo, charged only with obstruction of justice in connection with the case, played a central role, and not Ward.

Rivkin-Carothers said prosecutors knew that Iacullo's daughter had told her stepmother that, while with Iacullo on the night of the murders, the child "saw a little baby with blood on it," the petition claims. According to the petition, Ward's defense counsel was not told about the statement of the girl, who was 4 at the time.

Attorneys for Iacullo have said she was not a key player in the crime.

In 1999, Iacullo pleaded guilty to supplying and disposing of a handgun used in the Evans killing. Authorities have said she was a friend of Ward and co-defendants Jacqueline "Annette" Williams and Fedell Caffey. Williams and Caffey, who abducted the newborn with plans of raising him as their own child, have been sentenced to death.

Iacullo was never accused of using the gun, and prosecutors have said they have no evidence that she knew of the killers' plans to attack Evans, her 10-year-old daughter, Samantha, and her 7-year-old son, Joshua.

Ward's petition also claims his previous attorneys made mistakes in their handling of the case. Ward's next hearing is set for Sept. 14.